Step by Step Guide Using a X99 MICRO 2 MB
SHOULD BE THE SAME STEPS  FOR ALL EVGA X99 MB's
Parts Used:
EVGA Micro 2 mother Board
Intel 5820K 6 core 3.3 ghz  processor
GSKIL "Trident "Z" quad channel 4 x 8ghz 
Samsung 950 pro M.2 512 ghz 
EVGA 980 ti Classified Video Card
EVGA 850 G2 Power Supply
 
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STEP #1:
Lets start with the BIOS Revision: (1.03 when written)
It is a "FIRST STEP" to having the Newest tools for the latest hardware in your system !!!!!
 
evga does a "Great" job of keeping up with BIOS Tweaks
It is vary important that you have the "Newest BIOS" revision loaded onto your Micro 2 Mother board FIRST
 
Latest revision can be found here:
http://forums.evga.com/EVGA-X99-Series-f98.aspx
 
BIOS Installation

• Extract the contents of .zip file to USB flash drive (must be formatted as FAT32)
• Reboot the machine and go into the system BIOS

• From the BIOS, navigate to the Save & Exit tab and open "Select BIOS File."
• Select the .bin file you wish to flash from your USB thumb drive.
• Install and reboot 

Please Note:
After Flashing your BIOS you will need to press the F12 key the first time to get into the BIOS 
There after, it will always be the "DEL" key to get into the BIOS
 
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STEP #2:
The Samsung 950 Pro M.2 ssd  
NOTE: If you are running a 951 instead of the 950, some people report The SM951 needs to be formatted as GPT. first
 
Getting the BIOS to recognized this super fast M.2 stick is easy if you follow this:
Many people have problems with getting windows to recognize and load on this super fast Hard drive.
With "Default Settings",  the BIOS doesn't see the M.2 drive so neither will windows !!!!
 
There are a few steps to get the BIOS and windows to recognize the M.2 ssd
 
#1
UEFI must be enabled found under "BOOT" manager
 

 
 
 #2
Make sure to enable M.2 support (Found under the advanced tab)
and that "Improve Compatibility" is also enabled

 
 #3
Check to see that "CSM configuration" is enabled and that "UEFI Storage" is enabled (OPTIONAL)
 

 
#4
Now "SAVE" & Re-Boot your system then go back into the bios
(Press "DEL" key while rebooting)
 
 
 #5
Make sure "UEFI" is enabled in the "Fixed Boot order"
And you should see Windows Boot Manager in "Boot Option #1"
 

 
 #6
If Not
Check that the UEFI Hard Disk is set to "WINDOWS Boot Manager" under "UEFI Hard Disk Drive Priorities"
 
 

 
 
After a quick "SAVE & RESET" Boot back into the BIOS,
You should now be able to see the Windows Boot Manger as your First selection for "BOOT OPTION #1"
 
 #7
Now to Change your boot Order...............
How are you loading Windows?
USB stick or CD Drive ?
Change the Boot order in the BIOS to reflect which devise should be detected first, seconded, Third and so-on


 
 Save and restart..........
YOU ARE NOW READY TO LOAD WINDOWS
load windows as normal
 
I used a USB thumb  drive to load windows

Boot into windows and Un-Check  Win 10 Power Button setting called "Turn on fast startup"
 

 
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STEP #3: (OPTIONAL)
Overclocking the  RAM ( I chose GSKILL "TRYDENT "Z" 3200 4X8ghz)
Some folks have gotten 3200MHz to work without any issues at all with their Haswell chips, while other folks can't get past 2400MHz**. (**From the Moderator: It should be noted that higher rated CPUs may not experience this. The i7 5960X for example has a default of 2133MHZ)
  
I found that my ram likes to have a High Voltage (Mine liked 1.35v and 1.400v)
and I was able to achieve a "Stable" 3200 Clock speed buy setting "XMP" in bios to #1
and Manually  clocking my voltage to 1.350v's
 
 

 
PLEASE NOTE:
After changing to "XMP1", your CPU will automatically change Clock speeds (Over Clock)
this is normal and expected when changing to "XMP1" 
so continue to STEP #4 below to change CPU clock speed to your liking....
 
 
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STEP #4: (OPTIONAL)
OVERCLOCKING the 5820K
What Clock speed is best 3.8, 4.0 or 4.2 ?
 
Overclocking the 5820K is straight forward
I found a great guide to follow and it worked
http://forums.evga.com/EVGA-X99-Quick-Overclocking-Guide-m2208949.aspx
 
The issue for me is I have such a small case that I get a lot of ambient  heat from overclocking
When over clocking, you want to run the lowest Voltage possible so  you can get you a lower temperature 
I have been able to Overclock my Processor to 4.2 ghz at 1.175v but I don't like the temps I'm getting (48 idle)
So I run my 5820K at 3.8 ghz buy using the "Adaptive" setting in the "Overclocking" tab in the BIOS (See Photo Below)
 
After manually setting all my cores to 3.8
I followed the steps below: 
 #1
Set "CPU Voltage Mode" to "Adaptive"
 
 #2
Set "CPU Target Voltage" to 1.00
 
 #3
Set the  CPU "Offset voltage" to 1.270 (or try lower and test)
 
 

 
 
 
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 I figured I would put together this guide to Help others out and "Pay It Forward"
for all the help I have received from this awesome community !!!!!!
 
and now I have the fastest most reliable fun computer I have ever had
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I hope this can help at least One person
 
Best Regards Rick
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I do not have a m2 ssd so I can skip this step. However, in terms of the i7 5820k OC, I cannot get to 4.0. No matter what I do, windows does not load beyond 3.8. Any recommendation? 

I am using adaptive voltage. I have tried with the 1.175 v to get to 4.0 and even 1.3000 v it does not work. I do not know what is the problem. I cannot get beyond 3.8. My ram is working with the XMP profile at 2666 mhz. 

Without the XMP. I tried 1.150v, 1.175v, 1.200v at 4 and it did not work. When I used 1.200v, it only loaded windows one time and then crashed in the Stress test. It never loaded windows again! Can I play with other options beside Voltage Target and the Offset target?

To be honest I just wanted to get to 4.0 because I saw everyone could do it easily and it looks "cool". But you are right, my motherboard has no problem to run at 3.8 with the XMP at 2666. So, I will keep it that way. 

That doesn't look good.  
 
How does the socket and its pins look?
 
What cooler did you use for the CPU?  
 
I think you should create your own thread before this OCing guilde gets thrown in the deep end.  If a moderator can help us here and move this to a complete new thread, would be great.

 
 
 
Almost look as if it got hot at some point
or that in came in contact with water.............
 
 
 

gtxjackbauer
That doesn't look good.  
 
How does the socket and its pins look?
 
What cooler did you use for the CPU?  
 
I think you should create your own thread before this OCing guilde gets thrown in the deep end.  If a moderator can help us here and move this to a complete new thread, would be great.

 
I agree ..........
This is a different problem and needs to be discussed on a new thread


Jet_Bl4ck87 
Please start a new post in the X99 mother board section
so as to get the appropriate response about this problem
 
Thanks, Rick

Edit
 

baconinabun

V84x4
Edit
 

I've sent you a PM, you want to read my PM and change this thread
 
EDIT: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Please point out what you believe is wrong so that everyone can see

Bacon, off your meds again?  Don't trash this post as it was intended to help others.  Nothing wrong here, carry on.

baconinabun
what i believe to be wrong in this is
 
STEP #3: 
Get your RAM stable first,
timing should be entered manually as memory volts, don't use XMP.
to get your memory stable and showing fully you need to increase the system agent voltage start at 0.350 and work up till stable, i have 64gb of corsair 3000mhz my system agent is set to 0.450
 IN MY GUIDE MY RAM IS STABLE FIRST
 
STEP #4:
"CPU VIN" should be set to 1.95v give the CPU enough oomf to get it going
 
If you using offset/adaptive you only want to set that @0.050 then CPU voltage Target to 1.25 never go above 1.40v it's not good for the chip, if you do intend to go above that value intel offer a chip replacement service, attacking a chip with 2.270V is so wrong
 
the silicon lottery is a urban myth, once your X99 starts responding to the sweet voltages the sweet frequencys start flooding in and voltages can either be reduced or increased, softly softly catchy monkey
 
my 5960x will happily bench @4.8 when i got the thing to start with it i couldn't get it to go above 4.2
 
Never Push the x99 to hard to start with or you'll get a black bummed CPU
 
i have no interest in dissecting or rubbishing the @ops post, as i say great part about enabling the M.2, but off your trolly regarding voltages your trying to feed it!
 
 

I'll try my best to explain.............


Im not sure how things work on a ASUS but these steps were
taken directly from EVGA's overclocking guide so I will trust EVGA to know what they are talking about


Step #3
XMP profiles are there for a reason
I dont want to have to mess with voltages  for my GSKIL ram
when XMP1 is perfect at 0.350 and I get 3200 mhz without any effort
PLEASE NOTE ........
when switching to XMP1 your processor will automatically overclock as the voltage has to change with this profile
 
Step #4
Using "Adaptive" settings and changing Voltage to +127 is a recommended setting by EVGA
and is here in my guide as a great starting point
If you look at my CPU voltage in the picture above you will see that my CPU voltage is at 1.75V  NOT  2.70v as you state
So i'm really not sure that you understand how adaptive setting work here

As far as "Silicon Lottery"
I am taken back by your statement " silicon lottery is a urban myth"
Microsoft's own web site explains 
that the Silicon Die's come out with a huge mhz tolerance 
and that they are Binned accordingly.........

if you are getting 4.8 stable then that's incredible and you are very lucky 
 
 
Best Regards, Rick
 
 

bcavnaugh
This Thread Would be a Great Sticky for the X99 Area if it could be cleaned up.

surprise surprise, but i do agree with you is would make a great sticky if steps #3 and #4 were removed and given there own sticky?

I'm seeing a few complaints about this thread. I have noted no violations of the EVGA forum rules and as moderators we have to be objective so let me list some things here:
 
1: The OP is trying to help with his own knowledge
2: The steps given may not agree with everyone. I think post number 21 helps clear things up a bit.
3. Arguments against come of the steps in the OPs post are forum members worried about safety, nothing wrong with being overcautious
4. The OP refers to the overclocking guide here from Jacob and this is the preferred method for overclocking (http://forums.evga.com/EVGA-X99-Quick-Overclocking-Guide-m2208949.aspx)

rjohnson11
I should also note that if anyone believes they have a better "guide" to setting up the X99 Micro 2 make your own guide with pictures. The moderators will look over all similar posts and can select the best written one for a sticky.
 

I have revised My first post (with more pictures)
in hopes for it to be a Sticky someday ;-)
 
Thanks for all of your support

best regards, Rick
 

I have added a small comment to the sticky post